El Cruz, or The Cross
by Zach Peters
Summary: Desperado, Trigun style. With Wolfwood as El Mariachi, ever notice how much their alike? Final Chapter 6 up. I've already had enough flaming btw so watch it
1. Default Chapter

NOTE: This story is based on the hit action film Desperado, and whether it is based sorely or loosely is up to whom it may concern. If you don't like movie fics you don't have to read it, but I like writing them and I'm not creative enough to think of anything original so shoot me. I don't own either Trigun or Desperado, Yasuhiro Nightgow and Robert Rodriguez do, so direct any and all complaints towards said owners.  
  
In Augusta City, a bar was full of lowlifes, drunks and ordinary people. Suddenly the doors swung open and there was a big man dressed in black with a big cross shaped suitcase standing there. Whatever it was it was covered by a big faded sheet and a long strap with buckles. He removed his black shades even though it was the dead of night and walked in. No one could still make out his face because of the shadows he walked through. Everyone figured him for a priest, or just another bible thumper wandering into town to set up a mission, but they were wrong.  
  
The bartender and drunkards at the counter turned to see him as he wandered in. He sat down the big cross suitcase by him and took a seat on one of the stools.  
  
"What do you want?" the bartender grumbled.  
  
"Scotch and soda on the rocks, and information." The priest said, grabbing the man by his apron strings.  
  
He began whispering questions into the bartender's ear, but the people sitting at the table stood up and revealed pistols and machineguns pointed at him.  
  
The priest turned to them, but not before he took that giant cross and swatted two of the men nearest to him with it. He grabbed the gun one was holding and unloaded on the other thugs before they could fire back. When he was out of bullets he undid the strap on the cross, and all hell broke loose.  
  
Later after all the goons were on the ground he finally got what he wanted from the bartender, his drink, and information concerning a certain man.  
  
As the priest turned though the bartender raised a pistol, but before he could get a shot off the preacher man sank one in his head with his own pistol, and with that he left the bar, or what was left of it. 


	2. 2

1‡  
  
Nick woke up from his nightmares yet again when he heard a knock on the door.  
  
He picked up his pistol and held it tightly as he walked to the door. Nick let him in  
  
"What do you want Erics?" Nick asked him, lying back down after putting the pistol under his pillow.  
  
"Well first don't lay down on that thing too hard. Secondly.......he's there." He said, drinking from the whiskey bottle.  
  
"Chapel's there, so where do I start?" Nick asked.  
  
"The saloon would be a good place to start, just try and stop from turning it into a bloodbath like last time." Erics told him.  
  
"That one wasn't my fault you know." Nick said, taking out the clip of his gun, counting the bullets and reloading.  
  
"Just remember, Chapel is the one you want. What are you going to do when he's dead?" Erics asked.  
  
"When Chapel is dead, it's over." Nick said coldly.  
  
"The end of the whole revenge and eye for an eye crap, and your parents will be avenged and all" Erics said.  
  
Nick spun the pistol with his finger.  
  
The next day he was on the road on his motorcycle with the big cross suitcase on his back when he passed a sign. "30 iles to Augusta"  
  
The bartender at the saloon picked up the phone.  
  
"Chapel, I just called the bar in May City, and there was no answer."  
  
At the mansion outside of town a man in black with red sunglasses on held the phone.  
  
"Well let me know if you hear anything." Chapel said. He turned to his right hand man Cain.  
  
"Look I want you to place a few extra men around the saloon in the city. It's a security measure." He said.  
  
"Sure boss." Cain said.  
  
Nick wandered into town and sat near the saloon and set his cross against the wall when a little boy tried to touch it, Nick saw and grabbed him.  
  
"I just wanted to see what's inside." Kaite, the boy, said.  
  
"It's my belongings young one."  
  
"Are you a priest? Our town could use one. I read the bible but I don't get a lot of it."  
  
"It doesn't at first, but the good book is not to be misunderstood either."  
  
Nick lit and smoked a crooked cigarette as he sat.  
  
"It's time." He thought, and with that he picked up his cross and walked inside.  
  
The bartender looked at Nick as he walked in.  
  
"What do you want?" the bartender asked.  
  
"Something to drink perhaps?"  
  
"Is there something inside that big suitcase?"  
  
"Yes, my things."  
  
"Are you sure you don't need a baptism or anything?"  
  
"We just wanna know what's in the suitcase."  
  
"I told you, I'm a priest and this is my cross." Nick replied, reaching back for it  
  
"Don't touch it." The bartender shouted. A man held a gun to Nick's head while another started to undo the straps on the cross and pulled the long white sheet off it.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"It's just a big metal cross." The man said.  
  
"I told you." Nick said.  
  
"We just had to be sure, we all heard stories of a cross full of guns, but that's all they are, a killer preacher, yea right." The bartender said chuckling.  
  
Suddenly like clockwork, the horizontal line on the cross opened to reveal a whole line of pistols, 4 on each side sticking out by the handles.  
  
"It's him!!!!"  
  
"Okay I admit it, but I don't want to hurt you guys. I'm just looking for a man." Nick said  
  
"Shoot him!!!!" the bartender shouted.  
  
"I don't think so!!" Nick said, grabbing 2 of the pistols and filled the man full of lead.  
  
All the guys sitting at the tables pulled out all kinds of guns and fired. Nick dived behind the counter for cover. When he saw an opening he fired, killing some of them and dodging bullets at the same time. He jumped up on the counter and fired again while they fired back. Nick's pistols clicked, empty.  
  
"Damn it!!!" he shouted.  
  
He ran back to his cross and grabbed two more pistols and continued firing at the gunners. Most of them he killed but a few were still standing. When he was out of ammo this time he pulled clips out of his jacket and reloaded the guns. The men still fired but had terrible aim. One man fired while standing on the counter while the other hid on the other end of the counter. Nick jumped up and fired knocking the man off. He looked up and saw a chandelier on the ceiling and fired at it, it fell off and crashed onto the gunman.  
  
"That had to hurt" he thought.  
  
The bartender reached for a gun, but Nick stopped him.  
  
"I am looking for a man named Chapel and that is all. I don't wanna kill you; just tell me where he is."  
  
The bartender didn't answer before another man with a gun came out of the storage room to stop him. Nick dodged but the bartender wasn't so lucky and took a bullet in the eye. Nick stood up and fired two shots into the man and knocked him through the door. Since no one was left to question then Nick wrote a little message on a notepad. "Chapel, I'm coming for you." Nick signed it with a cross. He put his guns back into the cross and wrapped it back up with the sheet and buckled it with the long strap.  
  
Little did he know the drunk from before saw him leave from the bathroom and followed.  
  
On the street a young brunette woman crossed the street while eating a pudding cup. Her unawareness of traffic caused two cars to crash into each other. She noticed a man coming toward her with a big cross on his back, and another man behind him with a pistol in his hand. Nick heard him and pushed the girl aside and took a bullet in the shoulder. He didn't react until he tackled the man. The man fired shots off, nearly hitting the woman but Nick grabbed it and finished him off. He fell back, feeling faint from the bullet wound. The girl caught him before he blacked out 


	3. 3

Chapel and his men stopped by the saloon when there was no answer from them.  
  
"Everyone is dead boss. No one knows what the hell happened here." Cain said.  
  
Chapel looked at the bodies.  
  
"Where's Jacob? He isn't here."  
  
"We found him about a block away, he's dead." One of his men said as he handed the note Nick left behind to Chapel.  
  
He gritted his teeth.  
  
"You all heard of the priest who carries a cross full of guns. He wants my life."  
  
"He's a myth, a fairy tale, the guy doesn't even exist Chapel. Don't kid yourself about that." Cain said.  
  
"No, he is real. Now he knows I am here. He won't be leaving town anytime soon. I'm going to find him before he finds me." Chapel swore, throwing away the crumpled up note.  
  
Later Nick woke up on a table while the girl he saved was patching up his bullet wound.  
  
"You're awfully lucky it was just a flesh wound. If it got in your skin I may never have gotten it out."  
  
"You....." Nick said a little faint.  
  
"Milly, I'm Milly Thompson. I guess I should thank you for saving me from that man with the gun Mr. Priest." She said, cheery as a kid.  
  
"Nick, call me Nick, and it was just some routine preacher work. Thou shall not kill." He said, smiling a bit.  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
"In my folks' old insurance building. It once was a family business but now it's just me here. No one buys the insurance anymore, but I get by." Milly explained.  
  
Nick sat up.  
  
"Do you have a bed I could take a rest on?" he asked.  
  
"Sure, upstairs. You look like you haven't slept for days. Sweet dreams." She said with a cute smile.  
  
Nick went upstairs.  
  
Later Milly got curious about his luggage.  
  
She pulled the strap and the whole thing came off, the cross opened up to reveal pistols.  
  
Nick appeared behind her.  
  
"Have you no respect for a man's private things?' he asked.  
  
"I know you, I've heard about you, you kill crime bosses. The myth of the preacher who kills." She said.  
  
"Yes and I am looking for Chapel, do you know where I can find him?" he asked.  
  
"I hope you don't think you can kill someone like him. He is the man who has killed every enemy to ever face him." She said.  
  
"We'll see. Is it okay if I leave my things here? I need to go to church."  
  
"Church?" she asked, puzzled.  
  
"Yea, I do have my responsibilities as a preacher man." He said.  
  
Back at the mansion Chapel ordered his men to go and find the man who killed everyone in the bar.  
  
"How do we know who did it?" Cain asked.  
  
"It's simple you dumbass, if you see someone suspicious looking, kill them. Take the bulletproof car and take Dominique with you." Chapel ordered. The Cyclops woman came out, kisses Chapel, and accompanied the men.  
  
Cain rolled his eyes.  
  
Chapel went back inside the mansion.  
  
"It can't be him. He's dead. He's gotta be." He thought.  
  
At the church down the road he sat at a seat and put a church shaped box on his head. Another man came over to him with the same kind of box on his head.  
  
"Forgive me for I have sinned. Forgive me for killing all those men." Nick said.  
  
"You HAD to clear out the entire bar again didn't you? Now every hit man and bounty hunter in town will be looking for you." Erics, the other man, said.  
  
"They started it. I just want to find Chapel and I am done forever."  
  
"No, you want to do this fine, count me out. I've been looking into things and Chapel is not to be taken lightly. If you want help use your secret weapons and end up destroying the town."  
  
"No, you can't go I need your help."  
  
"Good luck, don't get killed." Erics said, taking off the portable confessional and walking out. Nick took his off and sighed.  
  
"Excuse me father, can I get a confession over with quickly?" an old lady asked him.  
  
"Here use this." He said, putting it on her head.  
  
Nick followed Erics outside, trying to get him to come to his senses.  
  
Chapel's men happened to drive by and saw them. They looked suspicious so they decided to greet them with bullets.  
  
Erics and Nick dodged in the alley. They got away by hiding in a dumpster.  
  
"Still going to help me Vash." Nick asked.  
  
"No, I'm going home, and my name is Erics now." Erics said, jumping out and heading for the bus station. 


	4. 4

Suddenly a bullet hole went into Nick's side. A man with a long rifle fired from afar.  
  
Nick dodged for cover but the man threw a grenade which sent Nick flying.  
  
Chapel's men heard the shooting and ran over to the spot. Suddenly the rifleman and the goons began shooting at each other; the gunman didn't last long before he fell. Nick forced himself up and limped away as he held the wound on his side.  
  
Cain looked at the now dead blonde man.  
  
"I know this guy, he's a bounty hunter, but what or who was he shooting at?"  
  
"Who cares? He couldn't have done the damage in the bar." One of the henchmen said.  
  
Nick saw Kaite not too far away talking to two men with guns; they were trading books, mostly bibles. When the men were gone Nick came over while holding his wound.  
  
"Oh it's you. I got my bible back, maybe now you can read it to me. They told me not to open it." Kaite said.  
  
Nick narrowed his eyes and tore the book open, revealing a big bag of marijuana. He grabbed Kaite.  
  
"Is this what you call reading the bible?? Who were those men?"  
  
"I don't know, they just tell me to switch books in the store every few days. They hide things all over the town. They pay me and my dad good money so that we can rebuild the sand steamer. Ask Milly, she's doing it too." Kaite explained.  
  
Nick waited until Milly came back to her insurance building.  
  
He grabbed her and ran inside while slamming the door.  
  
"Mr. Priest, what's the matter?" Milly asked.  
  
"You told him I was at the church didn't you?" Nick demanded.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"Chapel, you are working for him and you told him about me. Admit it!!!"  
  
"I wouldn't do that, I am not that kind of person. I don't work for him or anybody." She shouted back.  
  
"Yea right, look at me."  
  
"I don't want you to get hurt, and I didn't tell him a thing. You should see that killing him is not the answer."  
  
"I think you are no better than him." Nick muttered.  
  
"I told you this is MY insurance business, not his. I work here alone, and all I do is hold things for him." Milly said.  
  
"How much does he pay you?" Nick asked.  
  
"$$500,000 a year." She said, sighing.  
  
Nick laid on the counter while Milly went to patch him up again.  
  
Suddenly she heard a car pull up. Milly pushed Nick behind the counter and pushed everything off just as Chapel and his men walked in.  
  
"Hello Milly, nice to see you. Having some trouble?' Chapel asked.  
  
"Yes, just clumsy me." She said with her hand behind her head.  
  
Nick pulled out one of his pistols from out of his jacket as he waited behind the counter.  
  
"I am looking for someone, he is responsible for the bar shooting. Have you seen anyone suspicious looking?" he asked Milly.  
  
"Why no, I've been inside all day working on some files and what not." Milly said nervously.  
  
"You wouldn't lie to me would you?" Chapel asked, looking Milly in the eyes.  
  
She shook her head quickly.  
  
"Well if you do let me know." Chapel said, and with that he left with his men. He took one last look around; positive she wasn't telling the truth.  
  
When they left Nick stood up.  
  
"Was that him?"  
  
"Yes, and you aren't doing anything now or you'll get us both killed."  
  
Later Milly put bandages on Nick's bullet wound upstairs in her bedroom.  
  
"I'm guessing you have a wife at home Mr. Priest." She said.  
  
"No, I never did meet the right woman in my line of work."  
  
"I haven't met many guys in my job either. Chapel likes me but he's not my type."  
  
"Honey he is no woman's type. How any woman could love a man like that is beyond me."  
  
Milly looked up at Nick as he looked at her.  
  
"The good book does say we should not give into pleasure, but then again the good book says a lot of things." Nick said before kissing Milly, who began to kiss back passionately.  
  
Chapel, after spending some time in bed with Dominique, called Cain.  
  
"Cain, I think he is in the insurance building. If she is hiding him in there then kill them both, make it look like an accident, burn the place down you idiot." He said. The men headed out to Milly's place. 


	5. 5

Milly sat up and got dressed while Nick walked around for awhile, smoking a cigarette. He sighed, thinking about what to do next.  
  
Neither noticed or heard the cars pulling up outside the building. Nick sat on the bed while Milly fell back asleep. He noticed a silhouette in the curtains outside, one of Chapel's assassins were trying to sneak in. Nick aimed his pistol at him, but before he could fire another one began sneaking around. Nick picked up his other pistol and pointed it at him as well.  
  
"Now I gotcha."  
  
When they were both in range Nick fired at one, sinking one in his chest. The shot woke Milly up. The other goon broke the window glass, but Nick saw him and shot him before he could get a shot off.  
  
"Run!!!!" Nick shouted.  
  
Nick picked up his cross while Milly scrambled to get her shoes on, but when they tried to go downstairs the stairs along with the entire building was on fire.  
  
"We're not getting out this way. Come on." Nick said,  
  
They took to the roof, but Chapel's men were waiting. Nick shot them and looked at the next rooftop not far away. He first threw his cross which was shot at by the men below in the alleyway.  
  
"We gotta jump, you first." Nick told Milly.  
  
"But Mr. Priest, I-"  
  
"Go!!!" Nick said, giving her a push  
  
"Eek!!" Milly squealed as she landed on the next rooftop while Nick fired at the henchmen.  
  
Nick jumped next and landed on his back on the roof. He noticed a powder keg sitting on the side of the building and a few inches from the goons. He fired a few rounds at it  
  
BOOM  
  
The men went flying as Nick and Milly walked off.  
  
Later after the building was a smoldering ruin Chapel came by to see what was going on.  
  
Milly looked and saw him.  
  
"That's Chapel"  
  
"It is?"  
  
Nick took out a small add on scope and attached it to the top of his pistol.  
  
"One clean shot is all I need to end this." He said as he aimed at Chapel's head while looking through the scope to adjust the little target cross. He finally got a good look at Chapel for the first time, and was shocked at what he saw. He couldn't believe his eyes.  
  
He took the scope off and put the gun back in the cross.  
  
"What are you doing? Shoot him." Milly said.  
  
"I can't." he said.  
  
"Why not? He's going to kill me when he finds me." She asked.  
  
"Never mind, we gotta go, come on." He said, moving onto the next rooftop. Milly had no choice to follow.  
  
Chapel looked at his men with disgrace.  
  
"You idiots make me sick. You KNEW he was there. You didn't know before, and this time you did. You STILL couldn't get him. I ask you, how hard is it to kill someone you don't recognize in town?" Chapel said, picking up two big machine guns.  
  
"Look at them, I don't know them." Chapel said, motioning to the new men who just joined the gang.  
  
"They have guns; they must be doing all this."  
  
Instead of listening to them begging for their lives Chapel let off some rounds and filling them full of holes.  
  
"See? Is that so hard? Do I have to do everything around here myself?" Chapel asked Cain.  
  
"Now go and find him." He ordered. The men piled into trucks and wagons and took off.  
  
Nick and Milly took refuge in the church backroom.  
  
"I wasn't always a gun toting priest just so you know." He said  
  
Milly was still weeping over her lost home.  
  
"What do you have against Chapel?" she asked.  
  
"His henchmen killed my parents when I was a little boy. I tracked down the one who pulled the trigger and killed him at the age of 7. I thought I had avenged my parents, but I was wrong."  
  
"Well why didn't you shoot him when you had the chance?" Milly protested.  
  
"Look, I've been after him my whole life. It's not as simple as I thought it would be."  
  
"Well you still have your cross. Maybe you should fight him to the death."  
  
Nick chuckled a bit. He took the sheet off the cross and gripped the handle in the center of the cross and turned it I80 degrees. The vertical line of the cross opened up to reveal what was really inside.  
  
Milly gasped.  
  
"Maybe there is another way." Nick said.  
  
He closed the cross and carried it to the church alter. He sank to his knees while holding his cross.  
  
"I never have made a real confession before. Some church man I am, but this is my darkest hour, and I need the strength to fight lord. Please, forgive me for taking your name in vain and for killing men in anger then and now. Give me the strength to be what I am, and to become who I was again."  
  
Milly watched his praying and sighed.  
  
Later Chapel's men rode into town, looking for Nick, and he wasn't hard to find as he stood at the end of the street, his cross still wrapped up and being held on his shoulder.  
  
"That's him, spread out." Cain shouted.  
  
Nick cracked his knuckles  
  
"Let's do this."  
  
Henchmen began firing at him, he used his cross as a shield before unbuckling the strap.  
  
The sheet came off and Nick took the cross by the handle. The long end opened to reveal a machine gun. He fired at the cars and the henchmen but the bullets just bounced off the car.  
  
"Fine, dodge this." Nick said, turning the cross around and pointing the short end at the car. It opened to reveal a rocket launcher. He fired and blew one of the cars and the goons inside it to bits.  
  
The men fired back and Nick dived for cover behind an old car. He pulled out his two pistols and fired on the ones who were on the roof. More men on the ground fired at him as he raised his cross back up and fired more rounds off and nailing most of them.  
  
Others ran for cover, Nick used his rocket launcher to blow them away; he fired another one at the approaching car and blowing it up. The launcher clicked.  
  
"Shit, out of rockets." He thought.  
  
He fired off his machine gun and killed off most of them.  
  
Another batch rode up.  
  
"Damn it, they just keep coming." Nick said. He fired off more shots until he was out of bullets again. Milly snuck over to take the car and rammed the last ones.  
  
Nick grabbed his cross and ran into the car. Cain took out his long rifle to aim for his head, but Nick was ready for him, He dodged the shot and fired into Cain's uncovered eye.  
  
A sound came from the back of the car. Nick looked and saw Kaite tied up. He took the gag off him.  
  
"They made me say where you were. My arm..." Kaite said, passing out from the pain in his broken arm.  
  
Nick took him to the hospital and called his dad.  
  
"Time to finish this." Nick said as he and Milly got back in the car and headed to Chapel's mansion. 


	6. 6

Nick and Milly opened the gates to see Chapel and what was left of his men all aiming at him.  
  
Chapel's mouth dropped open.  
  
"Nicholas, what the hell are you doing here?" he said.  
  
"I thought I was being haunted for the Diablo, but it was you all along, my apprentice."  
  
"I had no idea it was you Evergreen. I just found out earlier." Nick said, putting down his uncovered cross.  
  
Chapel walked over to him and patted him on the head before shoving a pistol into his ribs.  
  
"You are a disgrace to me; I should fill you full of holes." He said.  
  
"I always knew you were a bad man Evergreen, but I didn't think you'd ruin this town and make it your empire." Nick said.  
  
"So my own little pupil comes to give me what for, and teach ME a thing or two. You're a priest, so what the hell are you doing killing my men and ruining my business?" He said.  
  
"YOUR men killed my parents." Nick said.  
  
"You killed them so it's over. I don't kill innocents." Chapel said.  
  
"No, you use them to do your dirty work and threaten them." Nick said, motioning to Milly.  
  
"So SHE is the one you love huh? You lost your parents and you gained a woman." Chapel said.  
  
"I'm sorry about your place, I told you your business would burn out someday. If I knew you were sleeping with my little pupil here I would've acted different." He said to Milly.  
  
"Evergreen, after you took off I set out to kill the one who ordered the hit on my parents. It took me back to you. The 10 years of training were not wasted either. It's over, sensei." Nick said to him.  
  
"So you came to kill me, your parents wouldn't be so proud of you, you were their little bible boy. Now look at you, a heartless killer like me. You don't have to kill me, you already have by betraying me" Chapel said.  
  
"We're out of here. Come on Milly." Nick said.  
  
"Put your hands up Nicholas!!!! I won't have you interfere while I destroy Milly for lying to me." Chapel said, revealing his own cross. He pushed a button and the cross split into two halves. Two machine guns he picked up and pointed at Milly.  
  
Nick had no choice but to put his hands up.  
  
"I'm sorry Nicholas. You have killed my men, fine, but after I am done we'll be even. Now I kill Milly while you watch."  
  
Nick inched closer to his cross.  
  
"Goodbye Milly." Chapel said while slowly squeezing the trigger.  
  
Suddenly Nick's cross opened up to reveal the pistols again. Nick grabbed two of them and fired, killing Chapel, Dominique, and the other men left.  
  
"I wont let.........any more.........innocent people die...............ever again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nick shouted.  
  
Later in the hospital Nick sat at Kaite's bedside in the hospital, reading passages from the bible until his father showed up.  
  
He picked up his cross and left the room.  
  
Milly stood outside as he walked into the hall and embraced him in another kiss.  
  
"So, where will you go now?" Milly asked him.  
  
"I don't know. I guess I'll just wander." He said.  
  
He walked down the hall and turned back.  
  
"Hey Milly, did I ever tell you I loved you?" Nick asked.  
  
"Ummmm, no." She said, blushing.  
  
"Maybe one day I will." Nick said, walking out the door. 


End file.
